Barcelona & Montserrat, Spain

-

The Streets of Barcelona

I loved the narrow and not so narrow streets of this beautiful city. Manoj in the cafe called Cappuccino. Also a picture of me in Placa Catalunya. I like the way spanish people say "Placa Catalunya," the name of this place. They say it so fast that the first few times I could not follow what they were saying. This is a central place in Barcelona.

The food market tour 

Most European cities have food markets. I am always fascinated by them and always visit at least one food market in a city or town I am in. Our cooking class included a visit to a nearby food market to buy ingredients for the dishes to be cooked later in the class. .

Spanish cooking class

We learned to cook Spanish tortilla, pan con tomat, gazpacho, paella, and crema catalan. As you can see, Manoj stirred and made the perfect sofrito for paella. We plan to host paella parties and I am volunteering Manoj for making paella.

This experience was fun.

Self exploration of Sant Cugat

This is the place where Manoj had his conference. I explored the monastery and the town by myself. Sant Cugat also had a lovely market where I got my dinner of sardines and drank lots of red wine (Rioja).

Pictures from the walking tour of Barcelona

The first one is an important one. On those steps, the Spanish king met Christopher Columbus before his voyage to find a new route to India, the land of spices. This is where Christopher Columbus came back and told the King of his discovery of the land of America.

The cathedral of Barcelona.

The banners on houses and the man with the flag in the middle of town square are showing solidarity for the jailed Catalonian leaders who have been in jail since 2017. They were jailed for passing a referendum to free Catalonia from Spain. Their trial verdict came out while we were there and the leaders were sentenced to be in jail for another 13 years. Catalonians have been protesting against the verdict, seeking amnesty for the jailed leaders.

Last but not least.. Yummmm… Thick Hot Chocolate (like the one Juliet Binoche made in Chocolat for her old landlady) with churros.

Famous Spanish Architect Gaudi and his masterpieces

La Pedrera and La Sagrada Familia

He liked to combine the elements of nature into buildings. He died while working on the Cathedral la Sagrada Familia. Construction still continues on this cathedral.

Montserrat

Montserrat is a spectacularly beautiful Benedictine monk mountain retreat about one hour North West from Barcelona by train.

Here are a few pictures from our trip here. My pictures don't do justice to the beautiful rocky mountains.


Location: Barcelona, Spain

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This Time Last Year - Paris City of Lights

-
Image
Its been seven months since the pandemic brought the world to its knees. People have locked themselves in and countries have sealed their borders. The end is not in sight. I have been miserable and the mere thought of not having the option to travel disheartens me. Then on a boring evening after work, I started watching the  ringarde  show Emily in Paris on Netflix and I became nostalgic for the five months we spent there in Fall 2019. We were based in Fontainebleau, a small town outside of Paris. I was working remotely and we would travel to Paris almost every weekend and stay the weekend in the city. In this post, I pay homage to the city of lights.  I am not into fashion or luxury goods so I did not love Paris for those. I have my favorites in Paris - wine, cheese, fresh breads from the boulangeries and the delicacies from the patisserie, the river Seine, and the adjacent Rue Rivoli, the ornate bridges on the Seine and the breathtaking views from the bridges during the busy daytime
Read more

Cote D'Azure, Nice, France

-
Image
December 14 - December 16th A French experience would be incomplete without a visit to the French Riviera. Manoj took out time from his busy schedule to go to the south of France. We decided to visit the coastal city of Nice and it's surroundings. The Nice airport strip is on the Cote D'Azure, which translates to the blue coast. As our plane made the landing, we could see the deep blue shade of the sea. After Barcelona, this was our second city on the Mediterranean this semester. After checking into the hotel, we decided to go for a leisurely stroll. Our hotel receptionist suggested walking to Massena place. Place Massena is the main square in Nice. In the middle of the square we came upon the sight of Buddhas sitting on pillars (pictured below). There are seven such Buddhas, each representing a continent. The Buddhas are trying to talk to each other, to arrive as a shared perspective on life. Like Barcelona, this coastal city is also surrounded by small hills.
Read more

Jerusalem - City of David

-
Image
December 29, 2019 Our last trip in Fall 2020 was to Israel. In this blog I am writing about our 1 day trip to Jerusalem. This is the most fascinating place I have visited. This place has rich history that is personally relevant to me, especially relevant to my faith and my upbringing. I was raised a catholic. Although I am not a practicing one now, biblical stories still resonate with me. The tour to Jerusalem was arranged by the Hebrew university. In fact, the tour guide was a business school professor, who teaches Marketing at the Hebrew University. She started out by sharing that every tour guide has a different interpretation of Jerusalem and she will share her interpretation, the interpretation that has been passed down to her by her grandmothers and her family. She also said that her tour is an important lesson on branding and developing brand value. Our first stop was the Mount of Olives. This picture of the city of Jerusalem was taken from there. Mount of Olives is c
Read more